Epilogue: The Narrow Path of Perfection and the Full Development of the Illuminative and Unitive Ways

The Narrow Path of Perfection and the Full Development of the Illuminative and Unitive Ways

We see now the deep significance of the sketch outlined by St. John of die Cross at the beginning of the Ascent of Mount Carmel and explained later in the same work.¹ It gives a synthesis of his whole doctrine and represents, as we know, three ways which at first seem to lead to the summit of the symbolic mountain, although in reality only one reaches it, the narrow path of perfection represented between the other two.

On the right we see the road followed by the misguided. Those who follow it keep their attachment for the things of earth: rest, ease, human knowledge, what the world calls liberty, a taste for the things of sense and of time. Where this road begins we find the words written: "The more I seek, die less I find ; I cannot climb the mountain because I have lost my way." As a matter of fact, the road that offers such a generous width at the start constricts and, instead of fulfilling its promise of ascent, soon turns downward. Sad to say, many set out along this way.

On the left we see the road followed by the imperfect: those who dally, detained not by the goods of the world but

4I2 THE LOVE OF GOD by the enjoyment which they find in spiritual goods, for example, in the knowledge of divine things sought through curiosity, in spiritual consolations desired for themselves, in a security without firm foundation, in the esteem and praise of good people. Where this road begins we read the words: "Instead of climbing the narrow path I sought for good things and now I possess fewer than if I had taken the strait way, and the delay has held me back." In fact, the way of the imperfect soul reaches only halfway to the top; from the sketch we can see that it fails to attain even a low degree of the illuminative way, where all too rarely contemplation of divine things and actual union with God are found.

In the middle we see the strait path of perfection, entered by an opening far narrower than the other two but gradually widening as it climbs upward, for it leads to divine immensity. On this steep path, plunging sharply upward, is written, "Nothing, nothing, nodiing": that is, the renouncement of earthly goods, rest, knowledge, freedom, the attraction of human things, and also die complacency taken by a still egoistic character in spiritual goods, learning, consolation, security, honor, or the esteem of others. A little farther on above this perfect purgative way is written : "The smaller your desires become, the greater shall you grow." And yet a little farther: "Because I no longer desire anything through self-love, all is given to me without my seeking it. Being attached to nothing, I find that I am without lack." By this way souls enter the perfect illuminative way through the passive night of the senses.²

St. John of the Cross explains at length the renouncement which leads thither in the Ascent of Mount Carmel, show- ing that perfect detachment, "Nothing, nothing, nothing," leads to the All, that is, to intimacy with Christ Jesus, who contains within Himself the whole of faith. 3 He says, "These counsels for the conquering of desires ... I believe to be as profitable and efficacious as they are concise; so that one who sincerely desires to practice them will need no odiers, but will find them all included in these."

First, let him have an habitual desire to imitate Christ in everything that he does, conforming himself to His life. . . .

Secondly, in order that he may be able to do this well, every pleasure that presents itself to the senses, if it be not purely for the honour and glory of God, must be renounced and completely rejected for the love of Jesus Christ; ... if there present itself the pleasure of looking at things that help him not Godward, let him not desire the pleasure or look at these things. . . . And similarly with respect to all the senses, in so far as he can fairly avoid the pleasure in question. . . . And in this wise he will be able to mortify and void his senses of such pleasure and leaven them, as it were, in darkness. And having this care he will soon profit greatly.

For the mortifying and calming of the four natural passions, which are joy, hope, fear and grief, from the concord and pacification of which come these blessings, and others likewise, the counsels which follow are of the greatest help, and of great merit, and the source of great virtues.

Strive always to choose, not that which is easiest, but that which is most difficult; not that which is most delectable, but that which is most unpleasing; not that which gives most pleasure, but rather that which gives least; ... not that which is loftiest and most precious, but that which is lowest and most despised. . . *

• This is to be understood as said in Bk. Ill, chap. 15: "A man must not fail to think and recall that which he ought to know and do, for, provided he preserves³

Strive thus to desire to enter into complete detachment and emptiness and poverty, with respect to that which is in the world, for Christ's sake. And it is meet that the soul embrace these acts with all its heart and strive to subject its will thereto. For, if it perform them with its heart, it will very quickly come to find in them great delight and consolation, and to act with order and discretion.

St. John of the Cross then encourages us to strive for contempt of self and to desire that our neighbor count us for little as well, remarking that this is salutary for the destruction of the pride of life.

If you would love all, seek satisfaction in none.

If you would have all knowledge, rest content to do without it.

If you would possess all, pursue nothing.

Whatever you possess, hold it as if you had it not;

For whenever you find that you desire something

Then do you discover that God is not yet treasure enough for you.

In these words is contained the full meaning of the words written across the middle of his sketch of the ascent of Mount Carmel, "Because I desire nothing out of self-love, all is given to me without my seeking it": all, and first of all, die solid moral virtues written by name as prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, followed by the inspirations of the no affection or attachments, this will do him no harm. For this question the lines of the Mount, which are in the thirteenth chapter of die first book, will be of profit.

"But here it must be borne in mind that this doctrine of ours does not agree, nor do we desire to agree, with the doctrine of those pestilent men, who, inspired by satanic pride and envy, have desired to remove from the eyes of the faithful the holy and necessary use of images of God and of the saints . . . ; they will ever assist it [the soul] to union with God, allowing the soul to soar upward (when God grants it that favour) from the superficial image to the living God, forgetting every creature and everything that belongs to creatures." Tr. Peers, I, 257 f.

gifts and fruits of the Holy Ghost, written to right and left of them.

As the soul then becomes more and more subject to the rule of the gifts and ought to be especially docile to interior inspirations, we read on the sketch, for the continuation of the climb, the statement that beyond this point no fixed road lies ahead ; the soul must thereafter listen in silence and recollection for die voice of the interior Master and be docile to it, going forward by ways unmarked through die passive night of the soul toward the perfect unitive way. 6

Then under the inspirations of the spirit of wisdom comes the full flowering of the three theological virtues, the names of which St. John of the Cross wrote almost at the peak of the mountain. From them proceed those highest acts which the saint expresses in these words: "Divine silence, divine wisdom, unending banquet. The glory and honor of God dwell alone on this mountain." It is still night, but the dawn of eternal life has begun to break as the saint expresses it in the beautiful chant Aunque es de noche ("Although It Be Night"): "I know this water which springs up and flows away. ... Its source is hidden in Life eternal but its secret course I have learned, although it be night." 0

This is the summit reached by the narrow road leading to life. 7 This is die footpath which St. John of die Cross himself followed for forty-nine years through suffering and persecudon to its end. Climbing it, he learned what he himself said, i.e., that suffering is the means par excellence of entering a deep and delightful knowledge of God because

8 Given in Hoornaert's translation at the end of Ascent of Mount Carmel, ed. 1922, II, 192. ' Matt. 7: 14.

4 i6 THE LOVE OF GOD suffering purges us and brings intimate and pure knowledge and consequently the purest and highest joy that we can know. 8 The words of the Master begin to be realized even in this life: "Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many diings: enter thou into the joy of thy lord," 9 into the very beatitude of God Himself, knowing Him as He knows Himself and loving Him as He loves Himself.

Who would say that this lofty doctrine, drawn from the well of contemplation and charity, is in some way opposed to St. Thomas' ? The Angelic Doctor most surely has a different way of approach and of expression ; he follows an abstract and speculative method, disengaging from the spiritual life in die concrete the great universal laws of spirituality, the highest and most universal principles concerning grace, faith, hope, and charity, together with the corresponding gifts of the Holy Ghost. What is striking about him is his genius for perfect balance and measure and harmony, which, precisely because perfect, in no way lessen the sublimity of the end to be attained.

St. John of the Cross was not a speculative theologian seeking to harmonize the facts of revelation with the findings of sound philosophy but a great contemplative who gave more time to prayer than to study, who often passed entire nights in pure and loving contemplation, translated at last into a spiritual canticle of marvelous beauty. Instead of abstracting from concrete spiritual life the notions and principles relative to the virtues in general and to each theological virtue

8 The Spiritual Canticle. Peers tr., II, 383.

together with each one's correlative gift, instead of composing distinct treatises on grace, faith, hope, and charity, he has done just the reverse: he has reunited these notions and principles as they are found in the concrete case of a perfect spiritual life, flourishing at once with living faith, abandonment, and love.

St. Thomas shows the nature and properties of the theological virtues, insisting on their essentially supernatural character because of their formal object. St. John of the Cross shows us their growth to full development, when their tliree formal motives shine out like three great stars glowing with increasing clarity in the night of the soul. As we pointed out in the introduction to this work, it is because of their different viewpoints and methods that these two doctrines serve to clarify each other. There is no question of making a clumsy attempt to effect a reconciliation between them but of listening to what two doctors of the Church both have to tell us on the same subject, each speaking from his own point of view and for our great profit.

St. John of the Cross teaches us much, showing what is contained virtually in some of the principles so well formulated by St. Thomas. He gives us knowledge of profound things, because, as he says in the prologue of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, he wishes to give us solid and substantial instruction, as being as well suited to one kind of person as to another, if we make up our minds to arrive at detachment of spirit by the narrow way: as he himself expresses it, he desires to lead contemplatives to the highest union by the most direct road.

His sublime doctrine conforms perfectly with what St.

4 i8 THE LOVE OF GOD

Thomas tells us of the imitation of Jesus Christ, the virtues of the purified soul, 10 the higher degrees of humility, 11 patience, 12 the spirit of faith, 13 confidence in God, and charity. 14 These two doctors of the Church meet on common ground in their profound understanding of the Psalms, the Book of Job, 15 Jeremias, and Isaias, and in their penetrating grasp of the same texts in St. Paul: "Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us: looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, who having joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon Him that endured such opposition from sinners against Himself; that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For you have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. . . . God dealeth with you as with His sons ... for our profit, that we might receive His sanctification." 16

The two doctors whom we have followed have drawn their profound knowledge of the cross of Jesus from the same source, of which St. Paul before them drank deeply when he set down these words of the Master, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for power is made perfect in infirmity," himself then adding: "Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessi-

13 Comm. in Ep. ad Hebraeos 11; 1-40 per totum. « Ibid. Also Ila Ilae, q. 27; q. 184, a.3.

16 St. Thomas' commentary on the Book of Job is too little known and should be read. See especially what he has to say on the texts 1 : 22; 7: 3; 19: 21. " Heb. 12: 3.

ties, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful." 17 "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. . . . For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen, are eternal." 18

O Holy Spirit, divine Spirit of light and love, to Thee I consecrate my understanding, my heart, my will, my whole being for time and for eternity.

May my understanding be ever submissive to Thy divine inspirations and to the teaching of the Holy Catholic Church of which Thou are the infallible guide; may my heart be ever inflamed with love of God and of neighbor; may my will be ever conformed to the divine will and may my whole life be a faithful imitation of die life and virtues of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom with die Fadier and with Thee, O Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever. Amen.

(Prayer of St. Catherine of Siena written by her own hand and preserved at Siena)

"O Holy Spirit, come into my heart, by thy power draw me to Thyself and grant me charity widi fear.

"Keep me, O ineffable Love, from every evil thought, warm and kindle me with Thy sweetest love so that every suffering may seem light to me.

"My heavenly Father, help me this day in every act. Jesus Love! Jesus Love!"

THE WAY OF THE CROSS ACCORDING TO ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 1

1. Jesus is condemned to death

God's justice and infinite mercy lie hidden beneath men's injustice. The Father delivered up His Son to death when He inspired Him to offer Himself for us at the very moment when He came into the world. By sending His Son to death and giving Him up to the torment of the cross, the Fadier willed to glorify Him by having Him obtain the greatest of all victories, His triumph over sin and Satan, a hidden victory, far greater than that which He achieved on Easter by the resurrecdon, His victory over death being a striking sign, but only a sign and effect, of the victory that preceded it.

Redemption, and redemption through the cross, is the very motive of the Incarnation. First and foremost Jesus is die Savior "qui propter nostram salutem descendit de coelis et incarnatus est." Let us ask Him to bring us to some understanding of the motive of the Incarnation, a motive of mercy responding to our misery. From all eternity sin was permitted only in view of a greater good, and the Savior's mercy in lifting us up from our fall is the most beautiful manifestadon of the all-powerful goodness of God: "And where sin abounded, grace did more abound."

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred

Ma, q.20, a. 4, ad mm; Ilia, q.i, a. 3 , ad 3um; q. 7) a.9; q.15, a. 5, 6; q. 4 6~5-..

wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

2. Jesus is made to bear His cross In bearing His cross Jesus makes an interior offering of Himself for us; the fullness of the gift of self is achieved in the complete sacrifice, the perfect holocaust which is about to be consumed. The transports of St. Andrew when faced with his cross, of St. Ignatius when he gave expression to his desire to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts, are but feeble echoes of Christ's ardent desire, invested as He was with the fullness of grace for the accomplishment of His mission as the Redeemer of sinful mankind. This fullness of grace acted like a weight in His soul drawing Him toward Calvary, a "pondus crucis"; it drove deep into Him an unfathomable attraction for the cross, die ardor of His love leading Him to that sacrifice which would render all glory to God and accomplish the salvation of men: "Love is the weight that draws me."

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

3. Jesus falls beneath the weight of the cross Jesus falls, not because He is overcome by weariness against His will but because His love aspires to the farthest limits of suffering that we may know His love for us. He wills to experience not only a holy enthusiasm for His oblation because of the abundant grace that is His but to become acquainted with overwhelming anguish that He may offer it up in the pure intensity of His supernatural love for the Father and for us.

Men lay the cross upon Jesus. He is absolutely innocent; yet He sees the justice of God in men's injustice. If we who are guilty of so many hidden faults with which no one reproaches us happen to suffer some injustice from others, let us see in it God's purifying justice.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

4. Jesus meets His Blessed Mother

Who knows better than Mary the motive of our Lord's sufferings, the love with which He bore them, and their value for our souls ?

Let us ask the Blessed Mother to help us understand the mystery of the cross that we may accept and carry our cross not in revolt and vexation but with thankfulness and then with love, or at least with the beginning of love, which will keep on increasing dirough daily Communion, by personal merit and by love itself, which by its own action obtains an increase of grace. After the Savior no one else can so well obtain for us a wholly supernatural understanding of the mystery of the cross as die Immaculate Virgin; and no one else can so clearly reveal to us its effect upon our daily life.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry His cross

What would we have said if we had met our Lord carrying His cross and He had asked us, "Will you help Me?" Today when a cross comes to us, it is Jesus who comes, Jesus who loves us, Jesus who desires to reproduce in us His own traits,

4 24 THE LOVE OF GOD

Jesus whom we love. Just as the first cause does not rob secondary causes of their usefulness, so our Savior's redemptive action does not render our efforts useless but on the contrary brings them into being and communicates to them their salutary and meritorious value.

We fail to realize how much we need the cross for our own purification and for the humble measure of work which God is good enough to let us do for the salvation of our neighbor. In a sense Jesus continues His agony to the end of the world in His mystical body, offering to let us help Him by carrying the cross prepared for us from all eternity and adapted by Him to our strength as sustained by His grace. We all have a cross, just as we all have a predominant fault and a particular supernatural attraction; our cross may be some sickness, some worry, or some other special trial. Through contemplation and love our cross becomes healing for us and radiant for others, helping them to carry their own holily. We really know others only when we know the cross they carry. The hidden apostolate exercised by contemplative souls consists chiefly in helping others to bear their cross by prayer and immolation.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

Our Lord's expression, the look in His eyes especially, speaks His thoughts and His love. What are His thoughts ? From the first moment of the Incarnation Jesus possessed the beatific vision in His soul, beholding the immediate vision of the divine essence, which constitutes the joy of the blessed in heaven. He preserved this vision even during the sorrows of the passion, during the great grief that He endured at the sight of the sins of all men, which He had taken upon Himself to expiate. Our Lord's sacred face, His look, expressed highest peace and deepest sorrow. Sentiments so opposed as to seem even contrary and contradictory arose from the same source, that is, die fullness of His grace, which was itself the result of the uncreated grace of the personal union with the Word.

Our Savior's fullness of grace acted as the principle of die beatifying light of glory in His soul, as the principle of His great love, happier in giving dian in receiving, and of His suffering at the sight of men's sins, which caused Him anguish in proportion to His love.

The sacred face of the Savior is the face of the Master of masters, the Master of apostles and doctors and of great contemplatives; it may be marked with bruises and spittle, but it loses nothing of its nobility and greatness and bears the reflection of His sacred soul, which even in this life contemplated the divine essence unveiled and looked upon the life of eternity to which He was leading us. But He willed to confine the light of glory to the summit of His intellect and gave Himself up to every humiliation and opprobrium during that hour when Veronica came forward to wipe His blood-stained face.

Lord, help us to strike the right mean between depressing sadness and feigned optimism and teach us to suffer for love of Thee and give us peace in suffering. My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

7. Jesus falls the second time

It would be a serious mistake to believe that Jesus suffered only in His sensory powers, those which we share in common widi the animals. Jesus suffered most of all because of sin, the greatest of evils, a spiritual affliction to be found in the higher faculties. Jesus suffered because of the sins of all men of every race and time. And His suffering was proportionate to His wisdom : He knew better than anyone else the number and gravity of men's crimes; they lay open before Him somewhat as we see die purulent sores of a body consumed with disease. His immense love of God, whom sin offends, and for our souls, which sin ravages and destroys, served also as the measure of His suffering. From this source sprang the sorrow that prostrated and crushed Him and surpassed the grief of all contrite hearts, afflicted for their sins. Jesus' fullness of grace augmented His capacity for suffering, whereas the egoism that keeps us living on the surface of ourselves, allows us to find pain only in whatever touches us personally and renders us incapable of supernatural suffering arising out of love of God and souls, an anguish unknown to superficial minds.

Lord, give us great sorrow for our sins. My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

8. Jesus consoles the daughters of Jerusalem

"Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me. . . ." No one takes My life away from Me. I give it freely. Nothing can give

St Marys Hospital you so striking a proof of My love for you as My Passion. Through die mystery of the cross, God tells you of His love for goodness and His hatred of evil, of injusdce in every form. My grievous Passion makes known to you also My Father's ardent love for Me in willing to glorify Me with victory over sin. Lastly, it expresses His incomprehensible love for your souls, since to save them, He delivered up His own beloved Son.

"Weep for yourselves. . . ." Blessed are they who weep the holy tears of contrition. Weep not for your crosses, which serve to purify you and make you free, but weep for your sins. "If any man will come after Me, let him . . . take up his cross. . . ." There is no other way to follow Me. "Weep for your children . . . ," for all who fail to understand, who curse and blaspheme the divine mystery of the cross.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

9. Jesus falls the third time

Jesus saw plainly the whole plan of Providence and could not suffer because of the divine permission for evil, holy as it is and ordered to the manifestation of mercy and justice; but He suffered beyond all reckoning because of sin itself. He willed to drink to the dregs the terrible chalice presented to Him in Gethsemane and containing all the shame and iniquity of the world, taking it for Himself and giving us in exchange the chalice of His precious blood, a blessed cup filled to overflowing with grace issuing from His bruised heart. These two chalices form the two scales of a balance, one containing all goodness and the other all evil and they

42 8 THE LOVE OF GOD sum up and show forth the whole profound story of sinning and redeemed mankind.

Jesus is going to give us the chalice of His precious blood shed for us, but for Himself He wills no mitigation of His sufferings. He prevents the light of glory beatifying the summit of His soul from shining down on the lower part of His higher faculties and on His sensuous appetency, limiting it to the peak of His intellect, as if He were to cease hearing the countless choir of the elect chanting, "O happy fault! Where sin abounded, grace did more abound." He gives Himself, up to suffering that He may expiate our sins. His imminent triumph is not allowed to assuage His grief as He falls once more face downward on the ground, just as He fell in the Garden of Olives.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Fadier, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

10. Jesus is stripped of His garments Our Lord's garments adhere to the wounds made by the scourging and, as they are torn off, His body flames with pain. This exterior and humiliating divestment symbolizes another and interior divestment which our Lord asks of us. We ought to strip ourselves of that self compounded of egoism, self-love under all its many forms, and of pride, that we may be clothed with humility and divine charity, which will enlarge our hearts and give them in a sense the great-heartedness of God by making us love everything as He loves it.

The saints understand the lesson of inner divestment, renouncing themselves and in a sense losing their own per- sonality in the very personality of God. The spirit of faith rules dieir minds; God's judgments and God's will take the place of dieir own; they have become servants of God in somewhat die same way that our hand is the servant of our will. At the same time they have reached a kind of independence of all things created and rule over them with God, who makes all things, even evil, work together unto good.

Above and beyond the saints, our Lord not only divested Himself of all judgments except God's, all desires other than God's, but He also has no human "I" or self at the root of His faculties, at the base of His sacred soul. In its stead reigns the sovereignly adorable "I" of the Word made flesh, possessed from all eternity of the divine nature and in time taking upon. Himself human nature that He may become our Savior.

We should not consider it a deprivation for Jesus to have no human self: it is, quite the contrary, a supreme perfection. The full development of human personality consists in making ourselves more and more independent of what is inferior to us and more and more dependent upon God; the full development of human personality consists in losing ourselves in a sense in the personality of God by an ever more intimate union; in Jesus this is identity. He Himself says to us, "Let Me live in thee and die in thee."

The uncreated person of the Word made flesh is the principle of the infinite value of His merits and His reparative death. Seen from above, as God and His angels behold it, how glorious is die cross of Christ !

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for die healing of our wounded souls.

43° THE LOVE OF GOD

//. Jesus is nailed to the cross

St. Luke tells us: "And when they were come to the place called Calvary, they crucified Him there: and the robbers, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. And Jesus said: Father, forgive them, for tiiey know not what they do." How different are diese three crosses! Lord, never let ours be useless like the bad thief's, make them like the good thief's, the convert thief's, and even more than that, like Thine own.

The words of Jesus, "Father, forgive them ..." express the highest act of fortitude and meekness combined. In the midst of His sufferings He not only preserves the profoundest peace within Himself but communicates its overflowing abundance to the most afflicted and erring of men, provided that they do not refuse die light. At the very moment when His executioners crucify Him He is meriting grace for them and asking the Father that they may have eternal life. Many martyrs will repeat His prayer, and it will serve as evidence that their strength and their perfect charity toward their persecutors are not simply human but truly divine. Thus the Savior's great prayer and suffering is continued, so to speak, in the mystical body until the end of time. If we must suffer from another, let us pray for him; if on our part we make others suffer, let us think that perhaps God inspires them to pray for us; let us remember that He most certainly prayed for us who were the cause of His death.

Because the crucifixion was our Lord's hour, His great hour and die highest point of the whole history of die world, let us look at every moment of our lives in relation to it, that we may be faidiful to the grace of the present moment. Then let us see each minute not merely in the horizontal plane of fleeting time, poised between a past which is gone and must be left at God's mercy and a future which is shrouded in uncertainty for us, but let us live in the present moment in a higher and more realistic way, seeing it in the vertical order, as it connects with the unique instant of changeless eternity, that moment of eternal dawn which never passes. We shall then come to know the infinite riches of die present moment. It slips away, but my body keeps on existing and my soul too, together with the grace which urges it, the influence of the Savior, and the three divine persons indwelling within me, provided I am in the state of grace. The present moment, no matter how laborious and lackluster it may appear, holds an infinite treasure; let us live it in such a way as to make it part of eternity, preparing for a good death, a sacrifice of adoration, of reparation, and of dianksgiving in union with our Lord.

Let us pray for those in dieir agony and those undergoing severe trials. My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

12. Jesus dies on the cross

Agonized and overwhelmed with suffering, Jesus preserved that peace which is the tranquillity of the order that His love restores to us. His last words express deep and radiant peace.

To the good thief: "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise": a word of peace to all great penitents, that they may know themselves pardoned.

To Mary and to John: "Woman, behold thy son. . . . Behold diy mother" : words producing what they signify, greatly increasing the Virgin's motherly love for all redeemed souls represented by the beloved apostle.

The cry of unequaled sorrow: "My God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me?" is the first verse of Psalm 21, the Messianic psalm consummated in perfect abandonment by Him who restores peace to the world and bears in our stead the malediction due to sin.

"I thirst": the Savior thirsts for souls and He Himself leads them to the living water of grace to purify, refresh, and save them.

"It is consummated": the perfect holocaust prefigured by the sacrifices of the Old Law is offered ; it will be perpetuated in substance in die holy Mass until the end of the world. His fullness of grace made Jesus desire to suffer for us even to this extremity and it now overflows on all souls not closed against God's love.

"Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit": these words consecrate and offer the sacrifice of the cross. Because the boundless love of the Word made flesh inspires His oblation, it has an infinitely meritorious and satisfactory value and achieves more to please God than all the sins of all men accomplish to displease Him.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

73. Jesus is ta\en down from the cross and laid in the arms of His Mother

The Blessed Virgin and, in some measure, those who remained faidiful, St. John and the holy women, apprehended the mystery accomplished on Calvary, the ardent love of the

Son of God offering Himself for us, the victory achieved over sin and Satan. Receiving into her arms the body of her Son, Mary glimpsed by faith to some extent God's infinite mercy for sinners and she adores the divine justice to which Jesus made perfect reparation.

What shall we ask of Mary, now that the sufferings of the cross have passed and their immense worth becomes more and more apparent ? Let us not have die presumption to ask for crosses, which we might perhaps carry imperfectly, but let us ask of the Virgin of sorrows love for those crosses made ready for us from all eternity. Give us, O Lord, love for them, whatever they may be and even if they must be carried in lonely martyrdom of heart and soul and mind; give us the grace not to exaggerate our crosses but to bear them just as they are and will be, without turning in upon ourselves, and simply out of love for Thee, Lord, and for souls. Mary Immaculate will lead us to bear them widi more ease and perhaps with more merit, for she will obtain for us an increase of charity, the principle of merit, and help us efficaciously by consoling us in our struggles.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee die wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls.

14. Jesus is placed in the sepulcher

The Savior's body rests in the tomb; in three days it will rise again. Through the cross Jesus has won the greatest of all triumphs, the victory over sin and Satan, and He can say to His disciples: "In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world." During the agonies of the Passion He remained the great Peacemaker, pouring out upon us the river of divine mercies. The resurrection or victory over death comes as a striking sign of that incomparably greater victory won over sin on Good Friday. "Sin entered into the world, and by sin death," death being a chastisement for sin. By the transcendent logic of supernatural mysteries, He who has vanquished sin should also defeat death. In prayer let us ask for understanding of this mystery that we may live more and more for God through, in, and with Christ.

My Jesus, pardon and mercy, by the merits of Thy sacred wounds. Father, we offer Thee the wounds of Thy Son for the healing of our wounded souls. Amen.

(Seen in the light of the principle: The fullness of grace in Jesus and Mary served as a source of peace and of reparative suffering)

/. The annunciation

"Ave, gratia plena." From the moment of her immaculate conception, Mary received an initial plenitude of grace excelling that given to all the saints and angels together. Her soul outshone all odiers, a diamond among lesser jewels. The plenitude of faith, of hope, and of charity that never left off growing in her was given to Mary because of her unique mission in die world as the Mother of God, her divine motherhood surpassing the order of grace and attaining in a sense to the hypostadc order constituted by the personal union of the humanity of Jesus with the Word of God.

This mystery of the Incarnation was announced to Mary and, enlightened by God, she spoke her Fiat with great faith, great peace, and great courage, for she had a presentiment of what sufferings her Son would undergo in fulfilling what the prophets had foretold. After the Fiat, at the moment when the mystery of the Incarnation was realized, the coming of the Word greatly increased Mary's initial fullness of charity. Mary therefore participated and will always participate

43 6 THE LOVE OF GOD more fully than anyone else in the effects produced by the yet higher fullness of charity received into Christ's sacred soul at the time of His incarnation. The Word became incarnate to save us by dying on the cross for us. In His sacred soul and in Mary's the fullness of grace produced two apparently contrary but intimately united effects, a deep peace which should find its reflection in us, and a desire for the cross which would continue to heighten until the hour of the Consummatum est.

2. The visitation

Mary saluted Elizabeth and, as St. Luke recounts, as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the infant which she bore leapt in her womb and she was filled with the Holy Ghost. Lifting up her voice she cried: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of diy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ? For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy."

Mary, who was to give birth to the Savior, brought grace to Elizabeth and to the unborn precursor. Mary herself had been redeemed in an absolutely exceptional manner by the future merits of her Son and she concurred in the redemption of us all. From the moment of her immaculate conception she had been redeemed by a sovereign redemption, being preserved from original sin instead of being healed of it. It was fitting that a perfect Redeemer should accomplish a sovereign and preservative redemption in at least one soul, and in that soul more closely associated with Him than any other in the work of man's salvation. Truly, what Jesus merited for us in justice, Mary has merited for us with Him and in Him and by Him through the merit of congruity. In this sense it has pleased our Lord that no one should be saved except in consideration of the merits of His Mother. In the same sense it has pleased Him to sanctify die precursor by Mary's words.

3. The nativity

The Blessed Virgin's fullness of grace increased sdll more with the birth of the Savior, when she had the immense joy of giving Him to the world.

Let us relinquish joys which are often all too human and sometimes even dangerous, joys which estrange us from God, diat we may live in the high and pure joy springing from the good news of the gospel. The angel said to the shepherds who were guarding their flocks at night: "Behold,! bring to you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people: for, this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David." The mystery of the Incarnation brings us the joy of the real presence of God among us, of God who continues to live in our midst in the Eucharist. The first effect of grace then begins to radiate upon us all: "Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will."

4. The presentation of Jesus in the Temple

On the day of the annunciation Mary said her Fiat in peace, with both joy and grief, having some foreknowledge of the Savior's sufferings, so plainly foretold by Isaias. The Blessed Virgin's grief increased when she was directly enlightened by the prophecy of the aged Simeon clearly predicting: "Behold this Child is set for the fall, and for die resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted;

43 8 THE LOVE OF GOD

And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed."

Presenting her Son in the Temple, Mary offered Him for us in sorrow; her suffering was, however, intimately united to the profound joy which she experienced when she heard Simeon's words of peace: "Now thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace: because my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel."

5. The finding 0} Jesus in the Temple

Our Lord said to Mary and Joseph: "How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" Mary accepted in the obscurity of faith what she could not yet understand, the meaning and depth of die mystery of the Redemption being progressively revealed to her. To find Jesus was a joy, but a joy that carried a foreboding of much suffering.

In the life story of souls joy comes at the beginning with the glimpse of the desired and distant goal, but afterward our Lord makes us understand that we must adopt austere means to reach it. There should be three great acts in the life of a soul: the joyous desire for the happiness of heaven, the continually renewed choice of the means leading there, although they may often be painful, and the possession of the end achieved. These great acts correspond to the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of the Rosary, a school for contempladon leading us gently to the living, enlightening, and acdvating contemplation governing all acdon.

7. The agony in the garden

In His overwhelming sorrow, Jesus remained in perfect conformity to God's will: "My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from Me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

Let us compare Jesus' sorrow with ours. We often fashion our own griefs, which lack reason and foundation. At other times our imprudent actions and faults have painful and well merited consequences against which we rebel. It also happens that our Lord sends us very afflicting trials for our purification, and these too, sad to say, are rarely borne well. Let us contemplate our two great models, Jesus and Mary, and we shall understand that the real evil which should give us concern is to be found in the sins that we have committed and in their consequences, wrongdoing which results in die loss of souls. Our Lord suffered because of them according to the measure of His love for His offended Father and for us who have offended Him.

Let us beg Him to teach us how to suffer in a way profitable not only for ourselves but for others as well. Out of something apparently useless, suffering, Christ's love once fashioned something aboundingly fruitful for good. He now in a sense continues His agony until the end of the world in His mystical body, in His cross-bearing members; and the mystical body can no more dispense with reparative suffering, a reflection of Christ's own, than our eyes can do without the light of the sun.

44 o THE LOVE OF GOD

In Gethsemane Jesus wept because of our sins ; they made Him suffer a bloody sweat. Let us ask Him for deep and true sorrow for our sins, the holy tears of contrition, spoken of in the beatitude, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

2. The scourging

By His wounds Jesus expiated for the guilty voluptuousness of men. He is struck, and we are healed. Mary, who saw her Son scourged for us, was not healed but preserved by Him from original sin and its blighting effects. She never knew our sad concupiscence. Sovereignly redeemed by Him, she gave Him the pure blood now shed under the lashes of His execudoners that we may be cured of the concupiscence of the flesh, which turns us from God, brings families to ruin and nations to desolation.

Pro peccatis suae gentis Vidit Jesum in tormentis Et flagellis subditum.

3. The crowning of thorns

Jesus was crowned widi thorns in cruelty and derision but the painful crown by which He expiated for our sins of pride flowered into a crown of glory for Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. And Mary, who saw Him go by bearing His crown of thorns, became associated with Him in His glory. "And the king loved her more than all . . . and he set the royal crown on her head" (Esther 2: 17). Before having her share in His final victory, our Lord allied her with Him in His sufferings, in the intimate peace that continued in the depth of their hearts in spite of everything, and in His desire to be immolated as a perfect holocaust for die salvation of men. The peace of our thorn-crowned Lord not only remained in the depth of His own soul but for two thousand years has radiated on all who meditate in their hearts on His passion and on the humility of both Mother and Son. As Blessed Grignon de Montfort says, the demon, who is pride personified, suffers more by being vanquished by Mary's humility than if he were immediately put down by die allpowerful God.

The humble and thorn-crowned Jesus will be uplifted above all. "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to die death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven and on earth, and under die earth: and that every tongue should confess that die Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Fatiier."

4. The carrying of the cross

"If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."

We ought to carry our cross in union with our Savior. When we bear it holily, it brings us a sweetness which the world cannot know. If we never come to carry our cross as we should, it is because our desire for eternal life wants for strength, life, and ardor. If we recoil before the harshness of the means, it is because our desire for the end lacks energy. We must reanimate our desire, asking the Blessed Virgin to increase it in us, togedier with our faith, hope, and charity. Then our crosses, because they are carried with more love, have less pain and more merit for us. Charity, the principle of merit, lightens the Savior's yoke upon us.

Lord, transform our trials. So often they weigh us down profitlessly ; let them bring us onward to our end and become for us and for others a pledge of eternal salvation.

The carrying of the cross reminds us, as it has been said, that life holds but one real misfortune, more evident in times of sorrow and danger than at others, the misfortune of not being a saint. We are absolutely sure of not having to bear more than we are able, God's grace aiding us. We are also sure of our guide and have but to follow in His footsteps.

5. The crucifixion

Jesus is going to die in terrible physical and moral suffering, and the apostles, with the exception of St. John, have left Him. The Mother of Sorrows stands at the cross making the greatest act of faith and hope that has ever existed. The Crucified has more than faith and hope: He preserves even in His anguish the vision of the divine essence. But He limits its glory to the apex of His intellect that He may give Himself up to sorrow. He seems overcome, His work appears destroyed, even His disciples have all fled. Not for an instant, however, does Mary cease to believe that He is the Savior, the Word of God made flesh, and that He will arise again in three days as He foretold. She has a greater understanding of die seven words diat He spoke than anyone else could ever have. She offers to the Father a Son whom she not only cherishes but rightly adores. With all the love which she is capable of she offers to the Father the still greater love of Him who hangs dying on the cross for us. Because of this offering she has received a final plenitude of grace constitut- ing her more than ever the Mother of men, the co-redemptrix, the universal mediatrix.

To Mary who "bore the death of Christ within her" let us say Vac ut portem Christi mortem. Let us ask her to share with us the two great effects of her fullness of grace: peace and the desire for the cross. May she help us to love the cross as all die saints have loved it; may she obtain for us an ever livelier and deeper understanding of the mystery of the Redemption and of the infinite value of the Mass by which it is perpetuated upon our altars.

1. The resurrection

Jesus is victor over deadi because on the cross He vanquished sin and Satan. He could say to His aposdes, "I have overcome the world," for He had overcome that spirit of the world which is compounded of concupiscence and pride. We have in the resurrection a striking evidence of this victory. ' Is not death die result and punishment of sin ? Victory over death then follows as the result of victory over sin, a fact which led St. Paul to say, "And if Christ be not risen again, your faith is vain, for you are yet in your sins."

Such is the meaning of the resurrection and of the glorious mysteries following after it. The joyful mysteries speak the delight springing from the first eager desire for the end seen afar off; the sorrowful mysteries remind us of the severe means that we must use in daily carrying our cross; the glorious mysteries tell us of our final conquest, introducing us into eternal life, our destination and last end. Toward this glory all our joys and sorrows should be directed, as Jesus and

Mary directed all the joys of His childhood and all the sorrows of His passion, uniting in offering die same holocaust. Let us contemplate these two great models and consider how we ought to imitate them every day of our lives, striving always more generously toward the end to which they desire to bring us.

2. The ascension Jesus was lifted up to heaven and placed on the right hand of the Father, where He will reign forever over the minds and hearts of men. With Him the souls of the just entered heaven to enjoy the beatific vision according to die measure of their merits and die degree of their charity. The Blessed Virgin had a degree of charity higher than that of all the saints together. Why did she not follow her Son immediately? She remained with the Church militant as its animating, suffering, meriting heart, sustaining the aposdes in their difficult labors. Our Lord deprived the apostles of His visible presence, but He left them His mother for their consolation. The new-born Church owed its development to the past merits of the Savior and also in Him, by Him, and with Him, to the prayer and suffering love of the Blessed Virgin, the spiritual mother of all men.

3. Pentecost

The Holy Ghost descended visibly in the form of tongues of fire on the Blessed Virgin and the apostles. Let us think of tins new increase of grace produced in Mary's soul. As the falling stone drops earthward with greater and greater speed as the earth's attraction increases, the Blessed Virgin's soul was drawn more strongly to God as she drew nearer to Him. The initial plenitude of charity which she received at the moment of her immaculate conception surpassed that of all die great saints. What a marvelous upsurge of love she must have known as her life went on! The law of gravity is only a kind of reflection of an incomparably higher law ruling die tendency of all creatures, especially spirits, to God. If they freely follow the double inclination of nature and of grace, spirits tend toward God witii ever increasing love until they reach Him, their journey's end. The nearer they come to God, the more He attracts them: a truth we see verified on the day of Pentecost in the souls of the apostles but especially in Mary's soul for no sin or imperfection held back the flight of her charity.

If the sacerdotal character was not given to her, she did receive the fullness of the spirit of the priesthood, the spirit of the redeeming Christ, and this she transmitted to the apostles, whom her prayer and interior immolation were to sustain in their great labors and struggles.

Through the hands of the most Blessed Virgin, let us consecrate ourselves to the Holy Ghost, asking Him to make us henceforth docile to His precious inspirations, which we have so often wasted. Let us also ask for apostles, strong priestly vocations, begging for many, but above all, for generous workers. Our Lord desires more than we do to perpetuate His priesthood and to save souls; we shall greatly please His divine heart by obtaining through Him, widi Him, and in Him efficacious graces for the formation of a chosen and faithful following who will continue worthily the apostolate of His first disciples and apostles, using the same supernatural means which they used.

4. The assumption

The Blessed Virgin died of love, her soul ravished out of her body by the strength of her love for God. Swept up to heaven by the flight of her charity, her soul was not long separated from her body, which had no contact either with original or actual sin and was not to become acquainted with the corruption of the tomb. Our Lord advanced the day of resurrection for His Blessed Mother, making her His companion in His victory over death because she was more closely associated with Him than anyone else in His victory over sin on Calvary.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Through the merits of thy Son and through thy intercession for us we can work out our salvation. Make us understand that for those who love the Lord and love Him unto the end, all things work together unto good, omnia cooperantur in bonum. Make us to be numbered among diose who continue to love until the end; obtain for us the grace of final perseverance, the grace of a good death. Then we shall see that through God's goodness, the merits of thy Son, and thy prayers, everything in our lives has turned into good ; everything— natural qualities, efforts, all the graces received since baptism, all the absolutions and Communions, all the defeats and crosses and contradictions, and even all the sins, for, as St. Augustine says, the Lord permits sin in the life of His elect only that He may bring them to a deeper knowledge of themselves, to true humility, that rising again after their fall, they may go on to greater gratitude and love.

5. The coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Blessed Mother is exalted above the choirs of angels: "exaltata est super choros angelorum, ad celestia regna." As we can form no idea of the final plenitude of charity which her holy soul possessed at the hour of death, neither can we determine the corresponding brilliance of die light of glory which she received nor the intensity of her vision into the most holy depths of the divine essence. She is queen of angels, of patriarchs, of prophets, of apostles, of martyrs, of confessors, of virgins, and of all saints, but she ever remains more our mother than our queen.

Let us keep asking her continually until death for the grace of the present moment. This is the grace that we beg of her when we pray, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now. . . . We plead for this most particular grace, which changes with each changing moment, makes us equal to the duties of the whole day, and opens our minds to the greatness of all those small things that bear a relationship to eternity. When we say "now" even if we may be distracted, Mary is not and listens to us, graciously receiving our prayer, and the grace necessary for us to continue praying, suffering, or doing at the present moment comes to us like a breath of air. Let us ask for die grace to live to the full the richness of the passing moment, especially die time of prayer. We can fall into a hasty and mechanical way of saying the Rosary and the Divine Office that militates against contemplation. Preserve us, O Mary, from such materialism. During the present escaping moment not only our body and its impressionable appetites exist but our spiritual soul lives too and Christ lives and exerts His influence over us and the Blessed Trinity lives

•448 THE LOVE OF GOD and dwells within us. Let us abandon to God's infinite mercy everything in our past and in our future and live practically and sublimely in the present moment, seeing in this fleeting now, whether it be dull or joyful or full of pain, a distant image of the unique instant of changeless eternity and, because of the actual grace which it contains, a living proof of God's fatherly goodness.

Deign, O Blessed Virgin, to make us recognize the holy demands of God's love for us at the present moment of our lives: He requires more of us now than before, because grace is meant to go on increasing until the time of death and, if we follow die divine plan, our whole life will be a direct journey to eternity, traveled ever more and more quickly as God draws us more and more strongly to Himself.

Index

Abandonment to God's will, pure hope and, II, 56 Acceleration: of approach to God, I,

Acquired contemplation and infused contemplation, H, 122 note Acquired virtues and infused virtues,

"Activity, natural": meaning of, I, 309

Acts, meritorious: increase of charily and, U 365-80

Affective charity to effective charity, 0, 48

Alphonsus, St.: views of St. Thomas and of, II, 228 Alphonsus, St., spirituality of, II, 229-

34: and doctrine of St. John of the

Cross, II, 234-67; and principles of

St. Thomas, II, 234-67 V Amour de la divine Sagesse by de

Montfort, I, 315 Anathema, St. Paul's willingness to be,

Angela of Foligno, Blessed: humility of,

Angels: circular movement of, II, 114; knowledge of themselves, II, 207 note: St. Augustine on good and bad, I, 120; sin of the, I, 103

Ansclm, St.: on degrees of humility, II, 128

Apostolatc, defects of those in the, II, 9 Apostolic life, the: difficulty of, II, 269- 73; special end of, II, 273-82; sublimity of, II, 268-90; superiority of, II, 269-73; unity of, II, 268-90

Apostolic orders, elements of religious life in, II, 282-90

Apprehension of God, natural immediate, I, 168 ff.

Aridity, II, 13 f.: in beginners, II, 27 ff.; benefits of, II, 42: after purgative way, II, 78; sensible, II, 10

Die Aszelik. des hi. Aljons by Kcusch, II, 229

Atwood on speed of falling bodies, I, 127

Augustine, St.: on Christian perfection, I, 30; definition of sin, I, 333; definition of virginity, I, 345; good and bad angels, I, 120

Ave Maria by dying soldier, II, 363

Baius on nature and grace, I, 77 Baptism: concupiscence after, I, 264; effects of, I, 263; and sacrament of penance compared, I, 280 Beatific vision, intensity of participation in. I. 375

Beatific vision, Christ's: and the cross, I, 196 ff.

Beatitudes, I, 302

Beauty, Plato on supreme, I, 32

Beginners: aridity in, II, 28 ff.; hypocrisy of, II, 7; imperfections of, II, 6; study by, II, 8

Benedict Labre, St.: and his insultcrs, I, 50; humility of, II, 128

Bernard, St.: De diligendo Deo by, I, 70; on pure love, I, 68 ff.

Footnotes

1. Bk. I, chap. 13; Bk. IH, chap. 14. ↩

2. Ibid., Bk. I, chaps. 8, 14. ↩

3. Ibid., Bk. I, chap. 13, tr. Peers, I, 60 iT. ↩